Key Takeaways
- Hollywood's fascination with the dating industry suggests that the average person is interested in the rise and fall of dating platforms.
- Hulu’s upcoming film "Swiped" will depict the early career of Tinder co-founder and Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd.
- Wolfe Herd has yet to comment on the film, and it's unclear whether the biopic will cover Bumble’s current engagement slump.
Like Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs, Whitney Wolfe Herd is getting the Hollywood treatment.
Hulu dropped the first trailer for the biopic “Swiped,” which follows a young Whitney Wolfe (played by Lily James) as she “disrupts an industry” by creating the female-focused dating app Bumble.
“Swiped” isn’t the only 2025 film to explore the unique dynamics of the dating industry. “Materialists,” starring Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal, and Chris Evans, shined a spotlight on the world of elite matchmaking this year. And in July, the TV series “Love Island USA” became the most-watched show on Peacock.
Record-breaking viewership and star-studded Hollywood hits prove that today’s TV and movie audiences are captivated by the inner workings of the dating industry. But will “Swiped” be a faithful retelling of Wolfe Herd’s story, or a glossed-over fairy tale?
With so many eyes on dating professionals, it’s no surprise that the industry’s most recognizable female-founder will finally see her story unfold on the big screen.
What Does Wolfe Herd Think of the Film?
Wolfe Herd has yet to comment on the film, which will start streaming on Sept. 19. But the CEO’s meteoric rise to billionaire status is downright cinematic. Dating professionals are undoubtedly asking themselves, “Why doesn’t this movie already exist?”
The film will cover Wolfe Herd’s rise as one of Tinder’s young co-founders, as well as her decision to leave the company just as it was gaining steam. She filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against the company she helped form, and her experience inspired her to build a dating app that prioritizes women’s safety — Bumble.
Dating professionals know the rest of the story: Bumble boomed, and not only became Tinder’s most threatening rival, but the blueprint for success for most dating apps. In 2021, Wolfe Herd even celebrated becoming one of the youngest, albeit briefly, self-made billionaires in history.
As Gen Z takes over the dating space and demands in-person connections, things look a little different for Bumble these days. The company has struggled to retain user engagement in the 2020s and its growth has stalled compared to that of other prominent apps like Hinge. Will the film depict the less savory aspects of Bumble’s story as well?
Depicting Bumble’s Ups and Downs
Judging by the trailer, it’s clear “Swiped” will cover Wolfe Herd’s experience as a young founder in the lighting-in-a-bottle girlboss era of 2010s Silicon Valley, as well as the events that led to her decision to create Bumble. “We need to change the rules of online dating,” her character says in the trailer.
This is something Wolfe Herd herself said in the past. “When I founded Bumble, it was because I saw a problem I wanted to help solve,” the real Wolfe Herd wrote in a post on Bumble’s blog in 2020.
“For all the advances women had been making in workplaces and corridors of power, the gender dynamics of dating and romance still seemed so outdated. I thought, what if I could flip that on its head? What if women made the first move, and sent the first message?”
This seems to be the film’s overall plot, but the finer details — including Wolfe Herd’s own participation in the film’s production, and whether the film will cover Bumble’s current downward spiral — are still unclear.
One thing is for sure: As the dating industry continues to evolve with the help of AI, future tech founders will probably see their own names in lights one day.
